No one can possibly know what is about to happen: it is happening, each time, for the first time, for the only time. – James A. Baldwin
When a man asks himself what is meant by action he proves that he isn’t a man of action. Action is a lack of balance. In order to act you must be somewhat insane. A reasonably sensible man is satisfied with thinking. – James A. Baldwin
The young think that failure is the Siberian end of the line, banishment from all the living, and tend to do what I then did – which was to hide. – James A. Baldwin
The price one pays for pursuing any profession, or calling, is an intimate knowledge of its ugly side. – James A. Baldwin
There is a ‘sanctity’ involved with bringing a child into this world: it is better than bombing one out of it. – James A. Baldwin
Every legend, moreover, contains its residuum of truth, and the root function of language is to control the universe by describing it. – James A. Baldwin
People who treat other people as less than human must not be surprised when the bread they have cast on the waters comes floating back to them, poisoned. – James A. Baldwin
The paradox of education is precisely this – that as one begins to become conscious one begins to examine the society in which he is being educated. – James A. Baldwin
I’ve always believed that you can think positive just as well as you can think negative. – James A. Baldwin
Most of us are about as eager to be changed as we were to be born, and go through our changes in a similar state of shock. – James A. Baldwin
It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive. – James A. Baldwin
I imagine one of the reasons people cling to their hates so stubbornly is because they sense, once hate is gone, they will be forced to deal with pain. – James A. Baldwin
I love America more than any other country in this world, and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually. – James A. Baldwin
Love him and let him love you. Do you think anything else under heaven really matters? – James A. Baldwin
Everybody’s journey is individual. If you fall in love with a boy, you fall in love with a boy. The fact that many Americans consider it a disease says more about them than it does about homosexuality. – James A. Baldwin
Life is tragic simply because the earth turns and the sun inexorably rises and sets, and one day, for each of us, the sun will go down for the last, last time. – James A. Baldwin
To be sensual, I think, is to respect and rejoice in the force of life, of life itself, and to be present in all that one does, from the effort of loving to the making of bread. – James A. Baldwin